Looking for Work and Help to Prepare for an Interview

Articles from April 2015

A lot of people find looking for a new job a very stressful experience, and this stress can get in the way of success. You may find that you will experience a lot of rejection before succeeding, but even if that’s the case remaining positive is essential.

So what can you do to remain confident, positive, and ultimately improve your chances of finding work? Well it depends largely upon your experience in the industry. If you’re looking for a new career, getting additional experience in the industry is very important, which can be done with internships and vocational courses, but if you’re already pretty experienced the problem could be with your CV or your interview manner. If this is the case then practising interviews with a professional if possible and friends and family if not can help, and getting a professional to review your CV can as well, whether that professional be a recruitment agent or somebody with experience at reviewing CV’s.

Writing a CV can be a daunting part of any job application, but it is also one of the most important parts of it. Writing a great CV is essential, and what you want to focus on to do this is making it concise and to the point; 1 or 2 pages long is typically the right length, but it can be longer for more technical and skilled professions.

A very important part of any CV is your employment history. It can be difficult deciding what to include and what not to and how much detail to go into, but generally speaking you want to include all of the jobs you’ve had, but only go into greater detail for the jobs which were more important and/or relevant to the one you’re currently applying to. It is very important that you include all of the jobs you’ve had and the duration of the employment, as any gap in employment is going to be a bit of a red flag for any prospective employer.

A lot of mistakes are regularly made in job applications, and one of the most severe is lying on an application. Whether the lie is about employment history, academic qualifications, or even somebody deciding to write their own reference, the lie can be easily found out, resulting in the liar losing their job and even having their reputation destroyed. Some even risk getting charged and sued for fraud.

An ideal job application for both employers and employees is one which demonstrates clearly and concisely the unique skills of the applicant. This means that some embellishment is okay, and brushing over some of the less desirable characteristics is as well, but lying is still a big red flag. Being honest can help an employer form a correct impression of how good of a worker you are, so that when the job begins they don’t have any nasty surprises.

One of the risks with getting comfortable in a professional position is that your career could end up stagnating, with you getting neither additional training or opportunities to better your career. You have a few options if you’ve found yourself in this position, such as looking for additional expertise in your career outside of work, changing your career entirely, or what would be my best recommendation; asking your employer for advice on what you can do.

Employers can also grow satisfied with somebody who is doing a great job in their current position, so it can be important that you indicate that you are looking forward to additional responsibilities and promotions and wage increases. This display of ambition needs to be managed, as you don’t want to come off as too strong, but it is absolutely necessary.

Some businesses will offer you training courses where you can learn new skills and more expertise in your field, while others will give you more responsibilities and see how you handle it. It really just comes down to what the business model is, but remember, you still need to ask your boss for more opportunities to develop.